Do Facebook Pages Show In Feed, Interest Lists, Notifications, Updates, Interactions Get More Views?

Many Facebook page owners share a common problem. Although they have hundreds of fans, only a small percentage (often as low as 5-20%) see updates they post. There are dozens of copy and paste messages going around which promise to help your fans see your updates. Problem is, no matter how legitimate they sound, they often aren't worth the screen they're pasted on. You may have seen a message that began like this:

Facebook is hiding us from you! Do you like reading our posts? Do you like receiving our posts?... Facebook has officially told us how we can be seen in your feeds...

The solutions given can vary, but here's a look at the different ones you're likely to see and how (or if) they work to increase views on your posts.

Redundant

Asking your fans to tick the 'Show In News Feed' solution won't help you reach more fans. For this to work, fans have to see the post. If your post is not in their news feed, they won't be able to see your post, and won't be able to make the change, anyway.

This means that the only people who WILL see your post, will already have this option turned on.

Worthless

Although this solution works in theory, in practice it has a low chance of success for two main reasons:

1. It's not as simple as telling people to add your page to their interest lists. People still need to look at their interest lists - essentially your page is being put in a list feed that may never get looked at.
2. Just like every other feed on Facebook, interest lists work around algorithms. That means that if your fans have a lot of other pages in their interest lists, your page is just as likely to be hidden as in the main newsfeed.

Spammy

When this option first appeared on Facebook pages, it was considered the answer everyone had been waiting for. By subscribing to notifications from a page, a user would get an alert in their notification box every time the page posted an update. Unfortunately many users don't like this option for two main reasons:

1. Too many updates. By following 5 or more active pages, notifications are often so continual that people may login to a dozen or more notifications after just a few hours and miss out on things they're interested in - such as updates from their friends. Because of this, people who use this option usually stick to getting notifications from only a handful of their favourite pages. If you're not in their top five, chances are they won't be subscribing to yours.
2. Short use. Although many people may subscribe when asked, it's not unsual for people to unsubscribe just as fast. Why? Spam! If you add 10 photos in a row to an album, fans will get ten notifications. If you post five times in an hour, fans will get five notifications. If most of your updates aren't that interesting, or repetitive - fans will quickly get sick of them. Unless you're sure that your updates are relevant, unique and not too often, chances are encouraging fans to subscribe for notifications is not the answer for your page.

Works

This recently introduced method WILL let fans see updates from your page in their newsfeed. It's simple to do. The main problem is getting your fans to actually do this - especially if you've been spamming their feed with the above methods and they're not sure WHAT they're meant to be doing.

Works

Telling your fans to interact with your page regularly is one solution that does work great - in theory. Because of Facebook's algorithms, the more updates they interact with from your page, the more updates they'll see.

But Why Are We Talking About What Your Fans Need To Do?

The biggest problem with all these solutions? They're all dependent on your fans taking action.

In the real world, whose job is it to market a business, keep customers engaged and coming back for more? The business owners (or their marketing team, if they have one.)

Asking your fans to take action may work for the short term and get you some sympathy. But in the long run, it's a way of lowering the professional look of your business and many fans either won't see or will forget.

Don't spend your time promoting yourself and your products continually. Instead, spend time connecting with your audience, learning about them and building their trust. Most importantly, learn about how the Facebook Algorithms work, so you can work with them.